Banned after accusations of abuse, some gymnastics coaches continue to teach

Oct. 2, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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A newspaper clipping featuring Doug Boger, right, with Flairs gymnast Denise Gallion. Gallion said Boger sexually abused her for three years, starting when she was 13. CINDY YAMANAKA/THE REGISTER, PASADENA STAR-NEWS

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Denise Gallion is spotted by Doug Boger on the balance beam in the 1970s. PHOTO COURTESY OF DENISE GALLION, TEXT BY SCOTT M. REID/THE REGISTER

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Charmaine Carnes at age nine, as pictured in a Flairs yearbook. RAFAEL BEER

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In a Jan. 11, 2010, letter USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny outlined the charges against Doug Boger. “That you engaged in physical abuse of gymnasts, including that you threw or slammed them against objects causing physical injury; hit and kicked them causing physical pain and injury; strangled, grabbed pinned and twisted them; slapped them, dug your nails into them, burned them with cigarettes, threw objects at them, required them to train while injured and required them to try new skills without mats, among other things. The complaints also include allegations that you engaged in mental and verbal abuse as well as sexual abuse,” Penny wrote. TEXT BY SCOTT M. REID/THE REGISTER

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In responding to the allegations, Doug Boger presented himself as the victim of a decades-old grudge. TEXT BY SCOTT M. REID/THE REGISTER

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Morgan Fleming testified against Doug Boger in a 1982 trial in which he was acquitted on child abuse charges. This picture is from a Flairs yearbook. RAFAEL BEER

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Leslee Jewitt told the Register that she lied on Doug Boger's behalf at the 1982 trial. “And in retrospect, I feel responsible," she said. "I feel like I helped derail something that had some merit. He should have been shut down then; should have done some jail time. And I still feel bad about that. Even today.” RAFAEL BEER

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Future U.S. and Pan American Games all-around champion Sabrina Mar said she “absolutely dreaded" going to practice. “I'd feign sickness just to get out of going to workouts. My mother would take my temperature and when she walked out of the room, I'd hold the thermometer up to a nightlight, get it to about 102, because that seemed like a believable reading, and stuck it back in my mouth by the time she returned. That's how much I hated going. The only thing I didn't fake was the pre-workout nausea caused by my anxiety. That part was real.” RAFAEL BEER

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Amy Moran said Doug Boger once became so enraged at her during a workout that he burned her in the arm with a cigarette. She is frustrated that Boger continues to work with young girls despite being on USA Gymnastics permanently ineligible list. “I just can't believe there is a system where (Boger) is allowed to be with children,” said Moran. “It's really disgusting that his gym can go and compete and get around the rules. Once you find out (about the abuse) you just can't turn your head and say ‘well, we have our policy.'” RAFAEL BEER

Julie Whitman said gymnasts were constantly on edge when they arrived at Flairs practices. “Was Doug in a good mood or a bad mood?” Whitman said. “That was always the first question in our minds. Was it going to be a fun workout or a torture session?” RAFAEL BEER

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Despite a string of titles, Ronalee Wilson said she dreaded going to gymnastics practice and facing her coach Doug Boger. Here she is pictured in a Flairs yearbook. RAFAEL BEER

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Charmaine Carnes, photographed recently, with a sign from Flairs gym. Bob Pennell, For The Register

A newspaper clipping featuring Doug Boger, right, with Flairs gymnast Denise Gallion. Gallion said Boger sexually abused her for three years, starting when she was 13. CINDY YAMANAKA/THE REGISTER, PASADENA STAR-NEWS

PASADENA – Charmaine Carnes had only been at Flairs, a Pasadena gymnastics club, a few months in 1978 when she was chosen to ride in the front seat of coach Doug Boger's car.

Carnes beamed as she shut the car door, convinced that the ride with Boger, then 30, to a competition later that day was the first leg of a journey that would make her an Olympian. Instead, Carnes said, Boger took her and many of her Flairs teammates to a much darker place.

"I was 8 or 9, and I remember he had this yellow Mustang and it was an honor if you got to ride with him," Carnes said. "And we would be in the car and it started off with him tickling me, and then I realized he was tickling me in my genitalia and I remember just staring at the gearshift in the car."

Boger's sexual abuse continued for years, Carnes said, escalating to sexual intercourse when she turned 12 and continuing even after he was investigated and acquitted on criminal charges of physical abuse in the 1980s.

Boger, a former U.S. team coach, continues to train young gymnasts today, more than a year after he was permanently banned from USA Gymnastics-affiliated gyms and events following an investigation into allegations by a dozen former female gymnasts of physical and sexual abuse, The Orange County Register has learned.

Had USA Gymnastics conducted an investigation at the time of Boger's 1982 trial, it might have found abuse far beyond what he was charged with by prosecutors. Instead, the governing body did not conduct its own investigation of Boger for another 27 years, until Carnes and nine of her former Flairs teammates, haunted by their past with Boger, finally came forward with their allegations. Even after they came forward, Boger was named a USAG national coach of the year in 2009 and continued to work as a U.S. national team coach at the 2009 World Championships.

When officials did investigate, Boger categorically denied the allegations of sexual and physical abuse in a January 2010 letter.

"It was shocking to read, but those accusations are not true," Boger wrote to USA Gymnastics officials. "They are fiction developed to do harm to my professional career."

Nevertheless, Boger was placed on USA Gymnastics' permanently ineligible list in June 2010. USAG's findings remain confidential, but documents obtained by the Register show he was accused of hitting, kicking, strangling, slapping, burning and sexually abusing underaged gymnasts during the 1970s and early '80s at Flairs.

Today, Boger, 62, continues to work with children at a Colorado Springs gym owned by Michael Zapp, a convicted sex offender. The gym, a 10-minute drive from the U.S. Olympic Committee's headquarters, is not a member of USA Gymnastics.

The 10 women named in the USAG documents, outraged that Boger continues to teach young girls, spoke publicly for the first time to the Register, detailing allegations of abuse in on-the-record interviews. Three of the women said they were sexually abused by Boger. Six also provided copies of statements they sent to USAG investigators.

Boger's 40-year presence in gyms with young girls highlights the culture of a sport that appears to have placed a higher priority on Olympic glory and its own public image than addressing the exploitation of young gymnasts. For years, USA Gymnastics has been slow to investigate abuse allegations and, even after acting, has refused to reveal the reasons why coaches have been placed on the permanently ineligible list.

A string of Olympic triumphs has turned USA Gymnastics, based in Indianapolis, into a global brand generating $20 million in annual revenue and attracting corporate sponsors like Visa, AT&T, Hilton, adidas and NBC. USA Gymnastics has 107,000 athletes and another 20,000 coaches, instructors and gym employees. The organization sanctions 3,500 competitions annually.

But the organization has been more concerned with protecting its brand than protecting its young athletes, former gymnasts say.

"The sport needs to do a better job of protecting the athlete, the most vulnerable," said Kathy Johnson, a silver and bronze medalist at the 1984 Olympic Games.

A parent of a child training at the Colorado Springs gym where Boger works said he was recently instructed by a USA Gymnastics representative to stop trying to find out why Boger was on the banned list.

"The result of it is that (sexual abuse in gymnastics) is never ending," said Jennifer Sey, the 1986 U.S. all-around champion.

""Here is USA Gymnastics with their red, white and blue smiling faces protecting criminals in the name of championships, marketing and sponsorship money," Carnes said. "It's an American tragedy."

Boger is not the only coach on USA Gymnastics' permanently ineligible list still working at non-affiliated gyms, according to a Register examination of previously confidential USA Gymnastics documents, legal records from 30 states and more than 70 interviews. The Register also discovered coaches who have had criminal convictions related to sexual abuse but have not been placed on the ineligible list.

A Tennessee gymnastics coach was convicted of statutory rape in 1991 after being charged with having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old female gymnast he was coaching, according to court records. He was 32 at the time. His conviction was reversed when an appeals court ruled that prosecutors used an illegally taped phone call as evidence in the initial trial. He is on the ineligible list. He currently runs a gymnastics center near Chattanooga, according to court documents.

A Michigan coach is on the USA Gymnastics ineligible list and is a registered sex offender in that state after being convicted in 1995 of attempted criminal sexual conduct, according to Michigan State Police records. He currently works at a Grand Rapids gym.

Zapp, owner of the ArtSports World gym in Colorado Springs, was convicted in December 1987 of second-degree sexual abuse in Oregon for inappropriately touching the breasts of a 12-year-old girl he was coaching at an Ashland, Ore., gymnastics school. Zapp is not a member of USA Gymnastics and is not on the ineligible list.

Zapp said parents of gymnasts at ArtSports are aware of his past.

"There's no problem," Zapp said. "If anybody had a problem, they wouldn't leave their child at the gym."

But former Flairs gymnasts said Boger and Zapp illustrate a troubling loophole in the rules.

"How on earth can these two men now be working together and USA Gymnastics and the USOC are fully aware of the situation?" asked Julie Whitman, a former U.S. junior national team member who trained under Boger at Flairs.

USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny declined to be interviewed in person but said through email that they carefully investigate any allegations of abuse by coaches. Penny said they cannot prevent Boger and other coaches on the ineligible list from working at non-member gyms.

"I take responsibility in this area very seriously and nothing is taken lightly," Penny said in an email.

"USA Gymnastics has been quite proactive in how it handles professional misconduct. In the past 6 years, we have updated our practices in this area to reflect evolving best practices, including changes to the bylaws that provide for more expedited procedures and the creation of our Participant Welfare Policy that more clearly outlines our policies on these matters," Penny wrote.

"The most clear-cut situations are those that are handled by the judicial system, where law enforcement does the work that it is best designed to do. USA Gymnastics conducts thorough investigations and whenever a name is added to the "permanently ineligible" list, it is published in our magazines."

Under USA Gymnastics rules, banned coaches like Boger are not permitted to coach athletes on the floor of USA Gymnastics-sanctioned events and cannot be credentialed for those competitions. They also cannot coach at what USA Gymnastics considers a "Member Club." Under USA Gymnastics rules, member clubs agree "not to employ, or use as a volunteer, anyone who is on the 'permanently ineligible list.'"

ArtSports is currently not a USA Gymnastics member club, although it was at one time, Zapp said. ArtSports' non-member status, however, has not prevented the gym from maintaining a high profile in the sport. ArtSports head coach Tex Womack was a U.S. national team coach in 2010. Four ArtSports employees are USA Gymnastics judges.

Olympic medalist Johnson is among a group of former gymnasts who insist that USA Gymnastics policies for sexual and physical abuse "need more teeth." In particular, Johnson said USA Gymnastics needs to close the "major loophole" of non-member gyms hiring banned coaches and still continuing to participate in USAG-sanctioned events. USA Gymnastics could close the loophole by requiring participants in sanctioned events and coaches of USAG-sponsored national teams to belong to member clubs.

"(Abuse) needs to be reported, and there needs to be a database (of coaches charged with sexual and physical abuse)," Johnson said.

Although Penny has said parents need to be thorough in checking out a gym before enrolling their children, former U.S. national team members and Flairs gymnasts said USAG has hindered parents' efforts by withholding critical information and refusing to disclose the circumstances behind the bans.

Sey said USA Gymnastics has "buried" the list of ineligible members on the organization's website.

"It's hard to find when you are looking for it," Sey said. "I don't think that's a truly honest effort to protect the girls. I think they're trying to cover their butts legally. These are crimes."

CHURCH BASEMENT

The First Congregational Church dominates an upscale block near Old Pasadena, a peaceful setting that belies the horrors a group of female gymnasts said took place in its basement. Each weekday, young girls walked down the church's metal back steps to Flairs Gymnastics.

"I find it ironic that Flairs Gymnastics sat in the basement of a church," Whitman said. "I guess you could call it my own little hell on earth."

During American gymnastics' first boom in the 1970s, few gyms had a higher profile than Flairs.

Flairs gymnasts, many from some of Pasadena's most affluent, high-profile families, performed in a Super Bowl halftime show. Three of the young gymnasts appeared in the film "Annie." Teen idol Scott Baio filmed a television show in the early '80s at the gym. When Bela Karolyi, coach of 1976 Olympic golden girl Nadia Comaneci, defected from Romania in 1981, the first U.S. gym he worked in was Flairs. The gym even had a sponsorship deal with McDonald's.

Much of it was driven by Boger, an attractive, charismatic former national champion.

Boger grew up bouncing around the Southwest and Colorado, where he was a state high school champion gymnast, according to magazineprofiles and newspaper interviews. At the University of Arizona, he majored in psychology and won an NCAA title. After college, he migrated to Southern California, first opening Flairs in 1972 on the front lawn of a small rented home in South Pasadena. By the mid-1970s, Boger and Flairs had already built a national reputation.

"Doug was a marketing machine," said Amy Moran, a former Flairs gymnast. "He made it sound like he was going to get us all to the Olympics."

Athletic with long brown hair that gave him the appearance of a member of a Top 40 rock band, Boger flirted with the mothers of gymnasts and was a regular drinking buddy of several of the girls' fathers, the former gymnasts said. He vacationed with Flairs families, even brought them moonshine brewed by his Southern relatives.

"For years, Doug Boger tortured me, then he would come over to the house for a steak like nothing had happened," Carnes said. "My family adopted him like a son."

"Like any abuser, (Boger) was a great manipulator," said Sabrina Mar, a former U.S. national and Pan American Games all-around champion. "He knew how to make you adore him, the day after he beat you up. He was charming and silly, and had the ability to completely erase from his mind (and yours) the fact that he slapped you so hard he left finger marks on your legs the day before."

Parents of the elite gymnasts were required to sign contracts acknowledging they would not be allowed to attend practices.

The former gymnasts describe two Bogers: the playful, immature Doug who charmed adults and wore a tuxedo T-shirt to formal occasions; and the coach with the dark side, who behind closed doors was capable of a brutality that seemed to know no bounds.

Moran said Boger once became so enraged at her during a workout that he burned her in the arm with a cigarette. Another gymnast, Leslee Jewitt, said Boger pulled her ear so hard that "I heard a ripping noise." He had torn some of the tissue in the ear.

"He pinched me in the breast and twisted it like, 'You better be listening to me,'" said Denise Gallion, who joined Flairs at 11 in 1972.

SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

Even more serious abuse would go undetected for years, according to the ex-gymnasts.

Gallion said Boger began to have sexual intercourse with her in 1974, two years after Flairs opened. She was 13. He continued to sexually abuse her for another three years.

"The experience of being abused by Doug was a mental torture, and it took away any sense of confidence I had in myself," Gallion said.

Boger preyed on young girls who appeared vulnerable, Gallion and other former Flairs gymnasts said. In Gallion's case, she lacked a father figure and believed Boger was going to help her fulfill her dream of reaching the Olympics.

"He motivated us with compliments and then created a jealousy between us," Gallion said. "He would rave to each of us at different times about how good one of our teammates was, as if to say, 'She's my favorite now!' Then we would strive to gain his attention and 'love' again."

In an Aug. 19 interview, Boger denied having sexual contact with Gallion.

"No, I did not," he said.

Charmaine Carnes said Boger began molesting her in 1979, when she was 8, and continued into her teens.

"By the time I was 12 he liked to French kiss me while groping my breasts and my rear end and telling me how beautiful I was becoming," she recalled in a letter to USAG investigators.

Carnes' parents helped Boger restore an old craftsman home in Pasadena. Her parents thought nothing of leaving her alone there with him.

"We spent time in the upstairs bedroom and he would ask me to lie down on the bed," Carnes wrote.

Carnes described in an interview how Boger prepared her, at 12, for sexual intercourse. The Register is not publishing those details.

"He told me he loved me," Carnes recalled. "He made me feel like I was the most special person in his life. So girls (in this type of situation) feel like they have to impress their molester. They seek approval."

But Carnes' feelings for her coach and his professed love did not stop Boger from physically abusing her.

Boger routinely twisted her arms, hit her in the chest and kicked her in the stomach, Carnes told investigators; he burned her with cigarettes on her hand and inner thigh.

In the August telephone interview, Boger was asked if he burned Carnes, Moran or other gymnasts with cigarettes.

"That kind of stuff is ridiculous," he said.

Boger also denied any sexual contact with Carnes. "Absolutely not," he said.

Carnes, Gallion and a third woman who asked not to be identified say they told their stories of physical and sexual abuse to an investigator for USA Gymnastics in early 2010. Under California law, the statute of limitations for prosecuting statutory rape and other sexual abuse of a minor by a person 21 or older is three years. Even if the allegations against Boger could be proven, he can never be prosecuted for them.

A 1982 TRIAL

Boger was indicted and tried in Pasadena Municipal Court in 1982 after the parents of two Flairs gymnasts complained to authorities. Prosecutors alleged that Boger pushed and kicked the gymnasts, ages 10 and 12 at the time. Some of the other gymnasts testified in his defense.

In December 1982, a jury acquitted Boger on four criminal counts of child abuse and battering. The jury deadlocked on charges that he kept beer and marijuana at the gym.

Of the 10 former Flairs gymnasts interviewed by the Register, two were involved in the 1982 trial, and one, Morgan Fleming, 8 at the time of the trial, testified against Boger. Jewitt told the Register that she committed perjury during the trial by testifying on Boger's behalf.

"I got on the stand and lied for him," said Jewitt, who was 15 at the time. "I had to because I was afraid that (Boger) was going to beat the crap out of me if I didn't or he wouldn't coach me, and that would put me in a really bad situation.

"And in retrospect, I feel responsible. I feel like I helped derail something that had some merit. He should have been shut down then, should have done some jail time. And I still feel bad about that. Even today."

Carnes' father testified as a character witness for Boger during the trial.

Carnes said Boger began having sexual intercourse with her while he was being investigated by police and prosecutors. He continued to sexually abuse her after her father's testimony.

"The sexual stuff definitely stayed present," she said.

While many of the elite gymnasts left Flairs after the trial, those who stayed said Boger's abuse escalated.

"After the trial, the intensity of the physical violence got just crazy," Carnes said.

Boger told parents, Carnes' mother Monica recalled, "that he wanted the girls to be more afraid of him than the tricks."

BELATED INVESTIGATION

USA Gymnastics, then the U.S. Gymnastics Federation, did not investigate Boger at the time of the 1982 court case, interviews show.

It would be another 26 years before the allegations resurfaced.

Penny, the USA Gymnastics president since 2005, began receiving detailed complaints about Boger in July 2008, according to former gymnasts named in USAG documents. No one from USA Gymnastics contacted any of the gymnasts for three months.

It would be more than another year, until Dec. 15, 2009, before Penny wrote to Whitman that USA Gymnastics had decided to proceed with an investigation of Boger.

During that time, late 2008, Boger was named to the 2009 U.S. national team trampoline and tumbling coaching staff and was awarded national coach of the year honors from USA Gymnastics in 2009.

While Boger's career continued to thrive, the former Flairs group waited anxiously.

"The next few months dragged on," Whitman recalled. "Many of us were wondering why USAG was dragging their feet."

In March 2010, USA Gymnastics notified the women that the organization had hired Santoni Investigations to examine the women's claims. Later that month, nearly two years after Penny received the first complaint about Boger, more than a dozen former Flairs gymnasts were interviewed by investigators for USA Gymnastics.

Ten of that group – Whitman, Carnes, Gallion, Fleming, Jewitt, Mar, Moran, Heather Stevenson, Monica Lenches and Ronalee Wilson – agreed to speak to the Register and detailed the charges they made to USAG.

The former Flairs gymnasts and other ex-U.S. national team members charge that USA Gymnastics was slow to pursue the 2008 allegations because of concerns a scandal would detract from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Penny said Boger's coaching assignment and coaching award were made by USA Gymnastics officials who were unaware of the investigation.

"We did not delay the investigation," Penny said in an email. "We make sure to follow a process that leads us to a correct conclusion. Given the nature of the complaint, the length of time (25 years) that had transpired since the incidents occurred, as well as other circumstances, it took a while to properly organize the investigation, determine its validity, and address it in a collective manner."

Penny informed Boger of the charges against him in a Jan. 11, 2010, letter.

"That you engaged in physical abuse of gymnasts, including that you threw or slammed them against objects causing physical injury; hit and kicked them causing physical pain and injury; strangled, grabbed, pinned and twisted them; slapped them, dug your nails into them, burned them with cigarettes, threw objects at them, required them to train while injured and required them to try new skills without mats, among other things. The complaints also include allegations that you engaged in mental and verbal abuse as well as sexual abuse," Penny wrote.

In responding to Penny, Boger pointed out that he had been acquitted in the 1982 trial.

"These people were members of my team more than thirty years ago," Boger wrote. "The charges were made back then, and I went to court with a jury trial that lasted two and a half weeks in the Pasadena Court House. I was exonerated on every count. The last words the judge said to me was, 'Mr. Boger go back to your gym and get back to work.'

"Someone in that group still harbors a grudge, and has stirred up the same allegations that I was acquitted of 30 years ago. The laws regarding Double Jeopardy must surely apply."

Nevertheless, Boger was expelled from USA Gymnastics and placed on its permanently ineligible list on June 11, 2010, according to an email USA Gymnastics attorney Scott Himsel sent to the former Flairs gymnasts. Any findings of fact by USA Gymnastics remain confidential.

A year later, Boger continues to work at the ArtSports gym in Colorado Springs.

"I just can't believe there is a system where (Boger) is allowed to be with children," said Moran. "It's really disgusting that his gym can go and compete and get around the rules. Once you find out (about the abuse), you just can't turn your head and say, 'Well, we have our policy.'"

Zapp said he and Boger have told parents of children at ArtSports World about Boger being on the ineligible list.

"They know all about it," Zapp said. "We told them what's behind it. I've known Doug for 40 years. There's a lot of problems with that list.

"Everybody is pretty thrilled to have Doug Boger in the gym here."

Not quite everyone.

Bob Alexander, a parent of a child training at ArtSports, disputes Zapp's claim that he and Boger were upfront about Boger being on the banned list. Instead, Alexander said, parents learned of Boger's troubles only after the list of banned coaches appeared in a magazine for USA Gymnastics members. There was no explanation of the reason for the ban.

"Myself and some others pushed for a parents meeting (with Zapp) and never got a straight answer as to why he was on the list," Alexander said. "I asked Doug some pretty pointed questions, and he got very defensive."

Alexander said USA Gymnastics officials also stonewalled his questions as to why Boger was on the permanently ineligible list, at one point even telling him to stop asking questions about Boger.

"When I asked (USA Gymnastics) about Doug Boger, I started getting the runaround," Alexander said. "I kept asking (USA Gymnastics) why Doug Boger was on the banned list, and all they would say is, 'He's on the list, that's all you need to know.'"

In phone interviews in June and August, Boger declined to go over the specific charges made by the 10 former Flairs gymnasts to the Register and USA Gymnastics officials.

"First of all, my lawyer says not to speak to anyone about that, not the media, anyone else about it," Boger said in June. "But I will say this: That was 31 years ago. They had their day in court, and I was exonerated on every single count of it. They just brought that up now because I was a member of the national coaching staff. They started some trash."

Boger was asked in the June interview if he was saying that he had never hit or kicked a girl or that he had never had sex with one of his gymnasts.

"I'm not saying that," Boger said. "They (USA Gymnastics) have a no-tolerance policy that even if you're just accused of anything, they have to suspend you."

Penny, however, said Boger's characterization of USA Gymnastics policy is wrong.

"USA Gymnastics did everything within its authority at the conclusion of its investigation, resulting in Mr. Boger being added to the permanently ineligible list," Penny said. "Given the sensitivity of these investigations, we take all necessary precautions to ensure every step in the process is thoroughly vetted."

LASTING SCARS

The lean, boyishly-handsome coach from Flairs is no longer recognizable in the Boger that coaches today at ArtSports. He is overweight, the brown hair now white and thinning. There is a weariness in the voice that once struck fear in so many.

"I'm retired," he said. "I'm working as a consultant here with this gym in Colorado, and I'm taking care of my mom. My attorney says not to say anything. What's over is over."

But if Boger has moved on, some of his former gymnasts said they are unable to.

For decades, they privately wrestled with the memories of the abuse and with whether they should come forward and report it. In recent years, the Flairs group began to reconnect through Facebook and other social media. It was then that they began to compare their personal experiences with Boger and decided to approach USA Gymnastics.

"The thought of my own daughter possibly being abused was too much for me to remain silent," Mar said. "For me, coming forward was less about courage. It was more about obligation."

Whitman said, "Over the years, there must have been 20 or 30 gymnasts (Boger) abused. I know I can't change the past, but I can certainly help shape the future."

More than 30 years after they first faced Boger in a church basement, the former Flairs gymnasts say they still bear psychological and physical scars. Some of the women said they have spent years in therapy dealing with the psychological toll.

"I created this façade of this really happy-go-lucky girl, and there was really nobody there," Carnes said. "Nobody."

Others said they are still coming to grips with what happened. Some have nightmares about Boger or live in fear of being threatened by him now that they have gone public.

"I'm scared to death," Stevenson said. "That little girl in me is still afraid of that man."

Gallion's Olympic aspirations were eventually dashed by injuries. It was a pursuit that came at a steep price.

On a recent afternoon, Gallion thought back to the 13-year-old girl who was sexually abused by the man in her life she trusted most.

"I didn't get the chance to go through what a normal 13-year-old goes through," she said. "That age is so important to the development of a person's self-esteem. My life did stop in a sense; I didn't continue to grow. I was influenced into being someone but not who I was meant to be.

"I am still trying to find myself and really know what I want and why."

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